(Click pic for more info)

Probably no other city than Nashville has a better understanding of what the hurricane ravaged areas of the Northeast are currently experiencing. The goal of “It’s A Shore Thing!” at The Bluebird Cafe is to help some of the hardest hit areas rebuild. Our heartfelt gratitude to friends Ruby Amanfu, Alyssa Bonagura, Gabe Dixon and Adelee & Gentry for helping out. We’re hosting the show and tickets for the in the round at The Bluebird Cafe went on sale last week!

Here is the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/events/320345594736370/

The show benefits The Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers Sandy Relief Effort. More details here.

Show is sold out. But you can get walk up seating if you arrive early.

12/14/12 Update: Tonight Sarah & Justin fulfill a life long dream. They play the Grand Ole Opry at The Ryman. We’ll be there cheering them on. We’re just so incredibly happy for them.

A little over 3 years ago, my friend – hit songwriter, Pam Belford (George Straight’s “If I Know Me”) asked that I come out to the Bluebird Cafe on St Patrick’s Day to listen to a line up that she helped put together.

She said I should come to check out this brand new duo she had just heard at the Commodore Grille here in town. Their names were Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis, two young college students attending Belmont University. They were serendipitously thrown into working together by one of their professors as part of a class project.

They were so new, they hadn’t even come up with a name yet. They were charming and undeniably brilliant. I think everyone at The Bluebird that night knew they were witnessing something special.

When I saw them again almost 6 months later I was pretty convinced I was seeing the future of country music. I had never seen any act develop that much in that short a time. I had visions of young girls across the world not only listening to country music because of Sarah – but wanting to be a guitar player just like her.

They’re both singularly inspired musicians – but there is something special about Sarah. She is a young spirt with an old soul. To his credit, Justin from the very start recognized this and has given her a bigger share of the spotlight. This just speaks to how generous they are with each other. Together they bring an unparalleled synergy to the stage.

They both understand, recognize and acknowledge the history of the music that they write, play and perform and treat it with the reverence and respect it deserves.

For one moment in the music business, everything worked the way it was supposed to work. Pam got in touch with Ralph Murphy at ASCAP, who introduced them to Mike Sistad, who championed them to everyone he knew. They then met John Grady from Crush Management who has since been their manager, advocate and mentor.

Pat Higdon and Cyndi Forman from Universal Music Publishing in Nashville have made sure that the music of the duo, now known as “Striking Matches”, gets heard.

But the folks most responsible for their success are Sarah and Justin themselves. I’ve never seen anybody work so hard and be so focussed. Frankly they’ve ruined me. I now know how much work it takes to even give yourself a shot at making it in this business. They have set a very high bar.

They always seem filled with gratitude for the opportunity to do what they love and don’t take anything for granted. But most of all they are just really good people.

Tonight I’ll settle in to watch ABC’s “Nashville” and I’ll get to listen to their song “When The Right One Comes Along” play to a national audience. Somehow it seems fitting. Because I know this time despite the odds, the right ones are going to have a great chance at success.

(disclaimer: We recently became part of SHEL’s digital marketing team. We’re part of the team precisely because we feel they possess a lot of the qualities needed in order for a band to be successful today.)

We’ve spent some time looking at bands and artists who have really taken to the new DIY ethic, especially in the digital music space. We continue to be inspired by the Amanda Palmers, OK Gos and The Civil Wars’ of the world. They have fundamentally re-defined what it means to be a band or an artist in the current musical landscape. We’re also really interested in trying to figure out what gives an artist, band or act the best chance of success in the future of the "new" music business.

We recently began planning and executing digital strategy for SHEL, a hard working band from Ft. Collins, Colorado. They are four classically trained, freakishly talented sisters. They’ve been described as "a power quartet of femme fatale wunderkind sisters…They don’t just play the hell out of their instruments with great passion, they do so flawlessly as if they were born mutated with these instruments attached to their hands.”

Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza Holbrook each play at least two instruments. Liza, the polyrhythmic percussionist/drummer/sister, plays djembe & beat boxes simultaneously and then sings harmony vocals at one point in the set…on a single song. She also doubles as the band’s webmaster on the road.

SHEL was signed to Scott Borchetta’s (think Taylor Swift) Republic Nashville imprint in early 2010. But they were "discovered" by Nashville based Brent Maher, a lifelong consummate musician, guitarist, songwriter and producer based in Nashville about a year before that. Maher’s credentials include producing The Judds, Kenny Rogers and Kathy Mattea. He even engineered sessions for Ike & Tina Turner. Yet Maher (and Borchetta) were completely floored the first time they heard SHEL.

A possible major label suitor even described them as "too musical for today’s music market." Which depending on your perspective could have been pointed criticism or a back handed compliment.

This year SHEL having amicably parted ways with Republic Nashville, just released their first full length album as a joint venture with Maher and his Moraine Music Group. Dianna Maher, Brent’s daughter, remains their staunchest ally and relentless champion. Moraine is also a future forward thinking music publisher/label.

So what sets them apart?

First, the music is completely and utterly amazing. It sounds great coming out of your car stereo. But the sisters have a singular gift for live performance. They have that sisterly "simpatico" on stage. At a recent outdoor performance in Nashville, one of the hottest producers in country music was so moved he got up like a shot from his lawn chair and ran like an excited kid backstage to see what he could do to help the band get noticed.

Second, the sisters are very digital media friendly. They are active on social media via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their fan base constantly engages and interacts with them at a level and intensity seldom seen in established acts, let alone new ones.

Third, and I think this is where they shine off stage…They shoot, direct, edit and produce their own music videos. Sarah, the fiddle player, is also a filmmaker. The music video for their last single, "Freckles" is now in rotation on CMT online and on cable. The quality, look and vibe of the video surpasses that of some high budget music videos.

They are also incredibly lovely and gracious young women. They treat their fans with respect, appreciation and kindness and go out of their way to make even their youngest fans feel comfortable in their presence.

Finally, they are constantly working at their craft as songwriters and musicians. They regularly visit Nashville and immerse themselves in the business of getting better at what they do – on and off the road.

More importantly, they perform these tasks and functions as integrated extensions of their music. It is all part of their creativity. It is not something extra that they feel forced to do. They just do it. There is no expectation of entitlement. And they do it all without whining. We like the "not whining" part.

They are obviously gorgeous (they need a hat endorsement) but beyond that they are driven, focussed and determined.

To be sure they are not perfect. Their web site is not properly optimized and under leverages the huge number of visits they get each month. They are also still learning how to properly navigate their way around Twitter which arguably could turn out to be their biggest social media platform to date. But that’s why we’re now part of the team, we hope to help them turn some of these challenges into real opportunities.

SHEL at CMJ

This week they are one of the buzz bands at CMJ’s Music Marathon. Tuesday night they played the PledgeMusic and TuneCore showcase at The Brooklyn Bowl. Twitter was…well…all a twitter about SHEL. Friday they play The Press House and Imagem Music showcase at Rockwood Music Hall at 1 PM. If you’re in New York City or if they’re coming to a town near you, catch their show and you’ll see what I mean.

References for post:

The Tennessean, Peter Cooper, And Now For Something Completely Different

String Theory Media, Craig Havighurst, Now Hear This: SHEL

Denver West Word, Dave Herrera, SHEL Moves Forward After Parting Ways With Republic Nashville

We’re looking for interns who are interested in learning how to effectively market artists, brands and bands in the new music business. This is an unpaid internship. Intern is required to commit to a 6-8 week period with a minimum of 20 hours of work per week as part of the internship.

You should have a passion and natural curiosity for the digital music & entertainment business. You should also have a healthy interest in learning about new music business models. The preferred candidate(s) will have a sense of humor, be flexible, well organized and have good multitasking skills. Big plus if you’re a natural problem solver.

You should be personable and responsible. But if you don’t know how to have fun, this is probably not the gig for you.

You will have the opportunity to learn marketing strategies based on current best practices, data analytics/metrics and realtime feedback.  You will also learn how to effectively use music marketing platforms such as Topspin, Bandcamp and BandPage.

If you really want to get your hands dirty, we’ll teach you how to develop web sites on WordPress and Bandzoogle. Maybe even code…if you’re up for it. We’re willing to teach and train the right candidate to our required level of competency. The rest is up to you.

We also expect that you will:
- Manage a variety of social media accounts for each of the individual artists, labels or brands
- Where appropriate liaise with artists, clients and their representatives.
- Manage and update web sites, gig calendars  and various online digital media assets & sites as necessary.
- Enable and coordinate the regular delivery of direct to consumer (ie. fans) emails, newsletters, messages and updates.
- Compile weekly social media statistics for all artists and conduct additional marketing research when needed
- Review Google and other analytics reports to strategize content delivery.- Help coordinate and plan our teaching workshops.
- We also expect that you will be available to teach and share with your colleagues and clients what you have already learned.

If you dig what we’re about, e-mail us your resume with an introduction.

A review of Leadership Music’s Digital Summit from our friends at

April 30, 2012, Issue 292

Digital Summit: Social/Traditional Media Balance

As the music and radio industries get caught up in the frenzy over social media, several experts at last week’s Leadership Music Digital Summit offered some insights as to how Facebook, Twitter technology tools and, yes, traditional radio are shaping the contours of how we connect with customers. Mobile Roadie’s Michael Schneider cautions, “Don’t get caught up in the ‘app or site of the month’ because things are changing so rapidly. That said, more traffic is coming from smartphones than desktops as people are checking their phones every six-and-a-half minutes. Brands are working hard to harness the ‘second screen by engaging more with consumers in order to monetize mobile eyeballs. For these devices, it’s all iPhone and Android; for the tablet, it’s all Apple.”

Flo {Thinkery} executive Sloane Scott agrees that these are still early days, and that there is much to be learned from how consumers are interfacing with social media such as location-based apps and couponing. “We’re still in the era of consumer influence. That is, they’re teaching us what they’re willing to do. Mobile payment, for example, is just beginning.” Scott advises against driving listeners or music fans to third party cul-de-sacs. “Whatever platforms you use, look for the ones where you can own the data.” Moderator and author David Ross notes, “Besides LinkedIn, I can’t think of one social media site where you can export a list of your contacts.” Walmart and other retailers use RFID (radio frequency ID) tags to track products through the supply chain, and that technology is now coming rapidly along for the music industry. Music Allies’ Sean O’Connell said, “There’s real excitement about RFID wristbands replacing tickets, and they will be ubiquitous by 2014.”

Outside The Box Music’s Charles Alexander says the immediate future is all about “fans participating in the experience” through sharing innovations such as webdoc.com, which can create drag-and-drop postings featuring photos, music, voting and other elements. O’Connell concurred, pointing to growing appeal of Google Chrome’s chromexperiments.com, where fans can remix songs (see Mix.js on the site as an example). One-way Facebook and Twitter postings about station activities or what artists are doing will not get much traction, panelists agreed.

Moontoast’s Marcus Whitney observes, “Talk about movies you’ve seen or world events. And ask questions, such as ‘What do you think?’ What’s a ‘like’ worth in ROI? If you create value for your followers in return for that ‘like,’ then you create value for your brand.” But he adds that it’s important to be mindful of how quickly the conversation moves. “Ninety minutes is the half-life of a Facebook post.”

While social analytics may not yet have infiltrated Country programming decision making, Next Big Sound’s Alex White says some PDs in other formats are receptive to such information for airplay considerations. “We use online activity to show a PD that an artist deserves airplay as much as acts already on the air.” Crimson Hexagon’s Wayne St. Amand noted that his company also provides data to help persuade radio.

Yet even though 70 million Americans (37%, up from 29% in 2010) use social media to engage with artists, traditional media forms still rule. NPD Group SVP/Industry Analysis Russ Crupnick showed that AM/FM radio is still the No. 1 music discovery vehicle among highly engaged music fans by a 3:1 margin, and that email was still a vital form of communication. “That the pendulum has swung all the way over to social media is false,” he says. “When asked what would make consumers buy more music, overwhelmingly it was radio back-announcing the name of the artist and song. It’s about giving consumers the information on the medium they use the most.” –Jeff Green

In about 6-7 hours, Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter campaign will come to an end. By then she will have raised well over a 1.1 million dollars for her upcoming project. Her target by the way was $100,000. It’s fair to say that she has obliterated her goal.

None of this is net of course but she outlines where all of this money will go.

Ms. Palmer is the poster child for how to do things in the Indie DIY music world. I’ve spent some time thinking about why she is so immensely successful at a time when most major labels are struggling in the new world order of the music business.

I think it comes down to the power of vulnerability. In fact, If you go to comments section of the Hypebot article chronicling this achievement (warning – image with article is not safe for work and is definitely "R" rated) , you’ll see that the reactions vary from those congratulating her to that of negativity and skepticism. Over and over again she has made herself and her music not only easily accessible, but she places herself completely in the hands of her fans. Leaving herself not only open to accolades but to criticism as well. She deals with both truthfully and transparently. In a lot of ways her willingness to surrender to community and commit to a whole other level of fan engagement has paid large dividends for her.

She alludes to all of this in this article. This is very enlightening stuff. How would you build your army?

We present the June Rock Your Net Workshops, this time around we’ll also be presenting an intermediate level hands on seminar. The first introductory session starts on Tuesday, June 5th at 11 AM

As before the introductory sessions will cover creating and implementing a plan to market your music. Participants also learn how to acquire and engage your fans. You learn how to build and extend your online presence & infrastructure with tools such as Topspin, BandCamp, Reverbnation and use YouTube, FaceBook & Twitter to build awareness for your band and your brand.

This time around we’re also presenting an intermediate level workshop. The first intermediate session starts on Wednesday, June 6th at 11 AM.

Alex Curtis will also present a lunch box keynote on mobile apps on Thursday, June 21st. The cost of the keynote is included in your introductory or intermediate sessions. All sessions except the keynote will be held at ESPACES. Please note that start times are now 11 AM in the morning.

Intro To Digital Marketing Series

The series is a hands-on, interactive internet music marketing seminar targetting musicians, artists, songwriters, publishers and their affiliated managers. By the end of the series you will be able to:

• Create and implement a plan to market your music.
• Build and extend your online presence & infrastructure with tools such as Virb, BandZoogle, BandCamp, Reverbnation and TopSpin.
• Use YouTube, FaceBook & Twitter to build awareness for your band and your brand.
• Learn how to acquire and engage your fans. Help them help you have a sustainable music career.
• Set up an online store to sell your music and merchandise direct to fan (DTF).

  When: June 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th

  Time: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm.

  Where: ESPACES
  We recommend you come to all sessions since we’ll be covering different topics each week. But you’re welcome to come to as many as you are able to attend. Space limited to 25 participants per session. If you sign up prior to June 4th, you’re eligible for an early bird discount.

The workshops will be held at ESPACES – a state of the art meeting, teaching and workspace facility(near St Thomas Hospital) minutes from Nashville’s Music Row on Harding Rd.

Bring your laptop. Take it with you. Rock happily ever after.

Rock Your Net’s Intermediate Series

We do require that you have participated in the introductory series or talk to an instructor/facilitator in order to take the workshop.

The Intermediate Sessions will go in-depth on using and setup on five specific tools: Google Apps, Tumblr, Mailchimp, Bandcamp, BandPage/RootMusic & Soundcloud. These specific services have been selected for their ease of setup and after-setup ease of use while you’re not sitting at your computer.  By the end of the class you will have setup:

1.  Your own personalized domain and coordinating email address;
2.  A website hosted on a popular blogging tool;
3.  Multiple ways to collect fan email addresses, trading songs for email addresses, and central place to offer music for sale; and
4.  Strategies for using the tools along with social media to engage with fans and track effectiveness.

The second and fourth week Intermediate Sessions will be conducted differently than the other classroom settings, and will be more catered to the specific needs of the artists issues. These classes will be scheduled during the week between the other classes, based on the times available to most of the students in the class (to be scheduled during the first class).

Week 1: Registering Domain + Google Apps + Tumblr + Facebook Fan Page
Week 2: working in small groups to address questions & individualized help. Time TBA — depending on attendees schedule
Week 3: Mailchimp + Bandcamp + Soundcloud & other online distribution
Week 4: workin in small groups to address questions & individualized help. Time TBA — depending on attendees schedule
We would prefer that you signed up for all four sessions.

We will also cover as time allows in-depth Facebook marketing strategies. Space is limited to 10 participants.

Keynote: Mobile Apps for Digital Music Marketing

Alex Curtis’s keynote will introduce you to some important apps that will rock your mobile digital music marketing. Come take a listen. Cost is covered in your registration. But if you want to just attend the keynote, you can register here.

This music technology educational initiative is possible due to the generosity of and awesome sponsors such as: If you are unable to attend, please sign up on our mailing list to get information and updates about future workshops. Graphics & web support by Michael Lovett of Phat Magnet Media. “It’s Not New Media Anymore” slogan courtesy of Rachel Barnhard of BigData Marketing.

This past few months I’ve been looking at where the future of fan engagement and perhaps even music discovery will take us. I am intrigued. My appearance on a panel at Nashville’s Leadership Music’s Digital Summit has prompted me to put this thoughts down in a post. It’s fun to play, "So what’s next?"

A Plan

Before we get to some of the actual predictions and forecasting, I think it’s important to emphasize that underneath all of this there should be a plan. There’s nothing more frustrating than realizing you might have gotten unbelievable traction on some medium and were unable to capitalize on it. Which leads me to…

Your Online Infrastructure

We spend a lot of time in Rock Your Net, our hands on digital marketing workshop discussing and planning one’s online infrastructure. If you think it suffices to have a Facebook Fan Page as your web site, I urge you to reconsider. If nothing else invest in Bandzoogle and/or a Tumblr site. They’re relatively inexpensive (Tumblr is free). You need a home base or nexus for fans of your music to gather around and celebrate. All the better if you own that piece of online real estate.

The Experience

I think in the coming years, the fan’s personal experience with the music or the artist or content creator will dictate how successful any particular fan engagement environment or campaign will be. I know that sounds obvious in the era of the "experience economy." But, I think the ability to provide deeper fan participation in the experience will be the thing that finally tips fan engagement online more into the realm of "sensory" music. The advent of HTML5 and some of the related technologies will make this possible. We’ll discuss these further below. So onward.

More than ever I think the creativity artists bring to songs, music, performance and production, now need to be applied to fan engagement.

Online Video

Hangout Air

Google just announced Hangout Air. This is a potential game changer for not only online conversations. But for artists to interact with fans. Way cool and way fun.

Video will continue to be critical to any artist’s online success. YouTube is now radio to a new generation of fans, listeners, enthusiasts and professionals. It is now the single biggest music discovery platform. If you’re not on it, you are robbing yourself. Especially now that Google has democratized monetization.

YouTube – Gotye’s "Somebody That I Used To Know"

Gotye’s "Somebody That I Used To Know" became the #1 song in 20 different countries including the US as a result of an incredibly well conceived video going viral. Which resulted in a bunch of other artists trying to reproduce the meme. None more successful that Walk of the Earth’s version of five individuals playing one guitar. Not only was the video a fan favorite. It was also well monetized.

Arcade Fire’s Sprawl 2

Another lesser known video by Arcade Fire for Sprawl 2 was revolutionary in terms of creating an interactive video that responded to the movement of the viewer in front of a webcam. The video uses more "primitive" programming tech – but is highly effective.

Twitter

I think Twitter will continue to grow as a platform for direct to fan interaction between content creators and consumers. Amanda Palmer managed to monetize an evening alone at home to some serious cash. Closer to home, Nashville artist Jen Foster, was able to convert one single tweet in response to a fan request into merch and music sales in the low five figures. It speaks volumes as to the platform. But it speaks more about Ms. Foster and her fans.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is primed to break wide open. It is a solid platform. Well designed and executed. But it also has a loyal and passionate user community. The Soundcloud team in return takes into account the needs of the user community when making changes and improvements. There is an inherent trust between users and developers. There is also a "culture" which I think is important to any platform’s success.

Their new partnership with Ableton, should give the platform even more reach and versatility.

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap is a big Soundcloud fan. She recently crowdsourced the composition of a song based on snippets, samples and fragments submitted by her fan base on SoundCloud. The project entitled "HeapSong", resulted in a track called LifeLine. Check it out.

HTML5

I’ve been a big fan of HTML5 ever since I saw The Wilderness Downtown by Arcade Fire. The promise of Web GL and Canvas is HUGE!

The Johnny Cash Project

This is a crowdsourced interactive video project that lets you draw frames for Johnny Cash’s "Ain’t No Grave" music video. So awesome.

The Wilderness Downtown

This is the Mack Daddy of all HTML5 music videos as far as I am concerned. Enter your childhood or present street address and watch as the music video "comes to life" and personalizes your interactive experience.

Daftunes

A relatively simple HTML5 app built for music that also interacts with Twitter. This rocks!

(Check out Chrome Experiments for a whole bunch of other non music examples)

WebDoc

This is my new favorite music tech crush. WebDoc! WebDoc uses the power of HTML5 to power a platform that is kinda like Instagram on steroids. It’s a hybrid blogging, tweeting, video, rich media platform that let’s you create, repurpose and share content.

Universal’s Nirvana Campaign

Check out Universal Music’s WebDoc campaign around the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Just phenomenal.

Web Radio

Radical.fm

Radical FM is cool. But I think Radical Indie will be – well – rad! It will give you the ability to broadcast and DJ your own radio station of indie music. How cool will that be? Check it.

Turntable.fm

It hasn’t caught on. But I just love Turntable.FM – or to be more accurate the idea of it. You spin music you like to a room full of music fans. With points. Yes, sir. I’m in!

Measuring Engagement Analytics

Of course, all of the above means nothing without the ability to measure and modify your efforts. Analytics and metrics are key. These two are very helpful and dominate the market in my humble opinion.

Google Analytics

Google’s free analytics platform is just incredible. If you haven’t learned how to use it. Do so now. You need data. This is the most affordable way to do it.

CrowdBooster

I’ve just begun using CrowdBooster and I have to say, "It’s spooky" But in a good way if you’re a marketer. Efficient, real time feedback on your social media efforts.

All in all I think the future is pretty exciting. There’s also access creep. It seems like more and more the ability for musicians and artists to access and build & leverage some of these apps & tools by themselves is becoming more accessible.

Stay tuned here for more developments.

(Some parts of this post were featured on my 2011 PodCamp related post. They still apply this year)

I have a confession to make. I’m actually an artist masquerading as a tech geek. I come at all of this tech, digital marketing, web development & pod/bar-camping from the perspective of an artist, musician, songwriter and creative.

This has been an important year for music & technology. Especially here in Nashville. In my humble opinion, nowhere else in the country has the potential for harnessing the energy of both these realms for the greater good and nowhere else is the tension between these two camps more palpable.

I get it. As someone who has both my feet on either side of that divide I know to some extent the opportunities and challenges that exist in this funky little marriage.

I’ll get to Podcamp in just a minute but the next two weeks present some really great events that may be of interest to some of you. If you’re a musician, songwriter, artist or creative type I urge you to consider attending Podcamp and these other top notch happenings.

Let’s start with DigitalMusic.Org’s StartUp Academy. A staple at SXSW, the seminar/classes makes it’s Nashville debut on Wednesday, April 11. My friend, John Pisciotta breaks it down for you. You can find coupon codes by Googling. Check it out.

Next week on Thursday, April 19th – The Google for Entrepreneurs all day event downtown is gonna be EPIC! It’s sold out but I’m told some tickets may be made available Tuesday, April 10th at 10 AM.

WordPress’ WordCamp will be on at the Watkins College of Art, Design & Film on Saturday, April 21st. If you’re into the content management system du jour, this is your conference!

Then on Wednesday, April 25th – Leadership Music’s Digital Summit returns to a bigger venue with more to offer at TPAC. I learn so much from this one. The theme this year is "Social Media and It’s Impact On The Music Space."

With the exception of Digital Summit, the main issue for me with these events is the lack of music type creative folks in attendance. Either they’re intimidated by what they think will be the subject matter or it’s a more tribal camp kinda thing. After all I don’t see many techies attending SongCamp, Tin Pan South, The Americana or Next Big Music Conferences.

Which is why for my money the PodCamp and BarCamp Nashville events are the most fun & friendly events to attend. I know there are even some musician types amongst the typical tech demographic that attend these un-conferences (though we could always use more). The sessions are free, informal and relatively easy to absorb if you have some interest in the topics at hand.

You should check out Jennifer Nash’s most excellent survival guide for PodCamp 2012. But here is my handy dandy guide to help a musician, artist or songwriter make the most of PodCamp Nashville on Saturday, April 14th, 2012.

First go to http://www.podcampnashville.org and register for free. Make sure you submit your correct shirt size so as to not miss out on the fun swag. Choose the sessions you think you may want to attend and get that all squared away in advance. You can even see who else is attending the same session. Avoid any last minute confusion and stress. Do this now!

The key I think to attending any of these events especially if you feel like you’re a bird not of the same feather is to try and not get overwhelmed. Preparation is key.

Remember to bring your business cards and a 15-20 second elevator pitch about what it is that you do. Don’t bring any CDs or music. It ain’t that kind of conference. You can always point folks to a link on BandCamp or Soundcloud (yes, the tech folks know about those sites) or your own web site (you have a web site, right?).

Once you get to Tequila Cowboy, consider buying the lunch option. It’s inexpensive. It is reasonably tasty. More importantly, it gives you the chance to network with your fellow PodCampers. And you normally get one (adult?) beverage thrown in for free. I’m told the meal deal this year is even more awesome than previous years.

If you choose not to get the lunch at TC, there are some good dining options nearby. Me loves me some Jacks BBQ. But you can normally find something decent within 5 mins of TC.

So on to the sessions themselves. They’re held in different rooms and sections of TC which is a pretty spacious bar. Pick out the sessions you want to attend ahead of time. Each session is assigned a specific room, plan out your trek at PodCamp based around those sessions and rooms.

If you’re a musician, songwriter, artist or in some kind of music allied field (say artist management), here are some sessions that may tickle your fancy:

1) Check out Jeff Goins’ "How To Fall Back In Love With Your Craft." What’s thay you say? You don’t think Jeff knows anything about music? Let me just say that in attending PodCamp 4 years running now, Jeff is one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard.

2) My dear friend Dave Delaney is a social marketing guru. He is so The Man! His session is "Networking In Real Life." Nashville is one of the best networking towns on the planet. You see the connection?

3) I always enjoy Mitch Canter. He is a very animated speaker and a WordPress guru. His session on "Responsive Design" should get you going, if you are thinking about building or revamping your web site on WordPress.

4) I don’t believe in false humility. So I’m recommending you attend my session on "Where Music and Tech Meet" – a look see at what happened at the music & tech intersection this past year and where the trends and more importantly the tools and platforms are headed.

5) We live in a visual world and I believe you need a visual web presence and strategy. I love talks and sessions that let you leave with a plan. Go check out Jeff Dolan’s "Video Is Hot, Your Site Is Cold. Let’s Fix That" session.

6) Another dear friend, David Beronja’s "Your Marketing Is A Waste of Time…Unless You Start With Why" should give you fresh perspective on your marketing strategy. Dave B. actually works or has worked in the music industry.

7) Ross Jones’ "How I Got Google To Pay Me $150,000" Do you have to ask?

My friend Rocky Alvey developed an iApp called Astro Cantus. It made music out of astronomical constellations. The developer, Jesse Bunch, speaks in "Music Meets The Stars in iOS."

So there’s some sessions where I think music and technology happily intersect. There are obviously more that you could attend. But I thought those might be the ones where you could indulge your artistic appetite and not feel like you’re drowning in geek speak.

Don’t forget to attend the free post event social. Come up and say "Hi" at the conference. Maybe next time you too can present a session at PodCamp or at one of the other tech un-conferences.

Feel free to comment or make suggestions below. Peace.